The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Vaccinations for older population and others in the valley doing great
[ By Mark Reaman ]
Don’t take off the facemask and jump into the mosh pit just yet but the general feeling from county officials when it comes to the coronavirus in the valley is that we are heading in the right direction. For the first week of March there were just five recorded positives out of 484 total tests.
While one person with COVID-19 symptoms was transferred to a hospital out of the valley last week, the overall numbers have dropped dramatically and Gunnison County public information officer Andrew Sandstrom said the team dealing with the pandemic is “cautiously optimistic.”
As for the transfer, it was a 74-year-old woman with some pre-existing conditions. She was diagnosed with COVID on February 18, admitted to Gunnison Valley Hospital for one night and released when her symptoms improved. She returned on February 25 and stayed in the hospital until March 1 when her respiratory efforts became too great for GVH to handle so she was transferred to St. Mary’s hospital in Grand Junction. She has since been released and is recovering back in Gunnison County.
But overall, the number of positive cases has come down sharply in the county.
“We are in a great spot but we have to emphasize that we aren’t done,” said Sandstrom. “There is still some risk in the county. People can still catch this virus and feel severe impacts. There is some worry about the variants. Chaffee County has seen some cases with the South African variant, but the state has not detected any sign of a variant in Gunnison County. While making great progress with vaccinations, we are not done. If we keep this trajectory we’ll be in a great place. Generally, we are very pleased with the numbers we are monitoring.”
Sandstrom said the success the county is seeing with getting people vaccinated is helping and setting up the area for continued successes. As of Monday of this week, 8,940 doses of the vaccine had been administered in Gunnison County, with more than 3,900 people considered to be fully vaccinated. That includes some who have received the single shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Sandstrom said the numbers are indicating that between 4 and 7 percent of the people who have gotten a shot in Gunnison County have permanent addresses outside the county. At the same time, about the same percentage of people with permanent addresses in Gunnison County have received a vaccine in another place. He estimated that about 82 percent of the population older than 70 are now vaccinated and approximately 70 percent of the local population older than 60 has received the shot.
“That is incredible and we are pacing really well. So far we have about 10,000 people who have filled out the county’s vaccine interest form,” he said. “We want to keep that number growing because it helps us organize how best we can get shots in people’s arms. Even if you don’t want the vaccine, we ask that you go online and fill out the form. And if you are in a group that we’ve already started giving vaccines to, sign up and you’ll be put into the basket that randomly selects people. People from all the groups we are addressing keep getting vaccines.”
State easing restrictions
The Colorado public health department issued a new 110-page health order early this week that is being analyzed by Gunnison County public health director Joni Reynolds. Sandstrom said that among the immediate impacts in the order, is that bars can now stay open until 2 a.m. if they desire.
“It appears they have also loosened some of the capacity restrictions for indoor gatherings but it is not super clear and Joni is digging deeper into what the state is trying to do,” he said. “We should have a better idea and get the word out later this week.”
The hope is that if the numbers continue to stay low, capacities will be increased before summer. “We are advising people that are organizing events to plan for both having restrictions and being back to no restrictions,” explained Sandstrom. “No one has a crystal ball on what might happen in the next few months so we all have to be prepared for both scenarios. But we are hoping for the best and if we stay on this trajectory, we could be more open than not when it comes to space and capacity restrictions for events.”
Sandstrom wanted to remind people that free testing is available five days a week to anyone at the Gunnison Valley Hospital through an appointment. Two walk-up community testing events will also be held at the end of March after the spring break periods.
